The application of the nanostructure coatings is seen as the solution of this issue (Voevodin et al., 2005; Yang et al., 2007). According to the Hall–Petch equation, the strength properties of the material rise along with the reduction of the grain size. In case of the coatings deposited in the PVD processes, the structures obtained with grain size ~10 nm cause the obtainment of the maximum mechanical properties. | 8 Environmentally-Safe Polymer-Metal Nanocomposites with Most Favorable Distribution of Catalytically Active and Biocide Nanoparticles A. Alonso1 J. Macanás2 . Davies3 . Gun ko3 M. Munoz1 and . Muraviev1 1Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona 2Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya 3Trinity College Dublin 12Spain 3Ireland 1. Introduction As rule of thumb nanomaterials NMs possess different properties compared to the same material in its coarser or bulk form Schulenburg 2008 . Once a material is reduced below 100 nm in size its components begin demonstrating unusual features based on quantum mechanics rather than macroscopic Newtonian mechanics which influence a variety of material properties such as conductivity heat transfer melting temperature optical properties magnetization etc. Bhushan 2007 . Taking advantage of these singular properties in order to develop new products and also new synthetic procedures is the main purpose of Nanotechnology and that is why it is frequently regarded as the next industrial revolution Lane 2002 Miley et al. 2005 . Although Nanoscience and Nanotechnology are quite recent disciplines there have already been a high number of publications which discuss these topics Ajayan et al. 2005 Blackman 2008 Campelo et al. 2009 Giannazzo et al 2011 Hassan 2005 Joo 2006 Klabunde 2005 Li et al. 2008 Macanás et al. 2011 Nicolais Carotenuto 2005 Rozenberg Tenne 2008 Schmid 2010 Vatta et al. 2006 Zeng 2004 . However some important concepts are still under debate. The safety of nanomaterials is of high priority but more fundamental ideas are also quite unclear nowadays. NMs are commonly defined as discrete objects whose size is less than 100 nm in at least one dimension Haverkamp 2010 . Nanocomposites are known as materials which include in their composition one or more functional materials. Nanotechnology is a multidisciplinary field as it combines the knowledge from different disciplines chemistry physics and biology amongst others Klabunde 2005
